Brussels, 05/07/2005 (Agence Europe) - Employment and ministers for work from the EU are meeting informally on Friday 8 July in Belfast under the presidency of the British minister for work and pensions, David Blunckett. Commissioner Vladimir Spidla will also be attending. The objective of this informal meeting will be to identify concrete measures for helping older workers, as well as the young and individuals who are in active or marginalised from the labour market to get back to work. Proceedings will be based on a very brief working document of the British presidency which includes key data on the unemployed. Ministers will be able to observe the work accomplished in the context of Community projects that have succeeded in getting the disadvantaged back to work. Observations will act as a basis for determining what practical measures are necessary to take to improve the employment level and improve social inclusion. The presidency has declared that it does not intend to draw formal conclusions from this meeting. This informal meeting will be prepared on the day before, Thursday 7 July in Belfast by a Social Troika (social affairs ministers from the British, Austrian Finnish presidencies of the Council of the EU) in which European social partners (UNICE, UEAPME, UEAPME, CEEP representing employers and the ETUC representing the unions) but there will also be other social partners from the three countries of the Troika, as well as Commissioner Spidla.
The message expected to be sent out at the opening of the ministerial meeting on Friday, according to Vladimir Spidla, should be “achieving full employment, improving productivity and the quality of work and reinforcing social and territorial cohesion - the three central objectives of the European employment strategy - demanding decisive and sustained action. Although certain Member States are showing the way, for most part, taking action is urgent. Success in some quarters should translate into success in other areas”. The commission will point out at this occasion that this informal meeting is being held at a key moment in the relaunch of the Lisbon strategy and that the Commission will soon adopt “the Lisbon Community programme, which summaries the actions envisaged at a European level in the years to come”. To attain this “ambitious calendar” Spidla will draw ministers' attention to two challenges that need meeting: 1) ownership, helping everyone to take responsibility for the Lisbon Strategy in respect of their competencies. This will involve all national and European actors, as well as better presentation of the Strategy to the public; 2) the integrated approach: incorporating both macro-economic and micro-economic chapters, employment and new guidelines. Such an approach demands: strengthening coherency and synergies between economic policies, employment, social, educational, competition and innovation policies; greater and more strategic and efficient use of structural funds, notably the European Social Fund in support of the political priorities of the Lisbon agenda.